Author: NIEUHOF, Joan.
Title: Het gezantschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham, den tegenwoordigen keizer van China: waar in de gedenkwaerdigste geschiedenissen, die onder het reizen door de Sineesche landtschappen, Quantung, Kiangsi, Nanking, Xantung en Peking, en aan het keizerlijke hof Te Peking, sedert den jare 1655, tot 1657, zijn voorgevallen, op het bondigste verhandelt worden. Beneffens een naauwkeurige beschryving der Sineesche steden, dorpen, regeering, weetenschappen, handwerken, zeden, godsdiensten, gebouwen, drachten, scheepen, bergen, gewassen, dieren &c. en oorlogen tegen de Tarters.
Description: Amsterdam, Wolfgang, Waasberge, Boom, Van Someren & Goethals, 1693. 2 volumes in 1. Folio. Contemporary half calf (spine dam; one hinge cracked but holding). With title-page printed in red and black, engraved frontispiece depicting the emperor of China with globe and a convicted criminal (mounted), engraved portrait of the author, and 34 double-page engraved plates and 110 large engravings in the text; without the map. (8),208;258,(10) pp. Later edition; first published in 1665. - Between 1640 and 1644 Nieuhof was serving as an official of the Dutch West India Company (WIC) in Brazil, but by 1665 he was at Batavia, in Java, as a servant of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). In 1665 Nieuhof published what is regarded as the definitive account of the Dutch embassy to Peking, and it is for this that he is best known (Howgego p.752). Nieuhof's account presented the Dutch reader with the most substantial and detailed description of the Middle Kingdom yet published. It contains information from the most important Jesuit sources and adds to them the observations of one of the first Dutchmen to travel in China's interior and visit the capital. Nieuhof's book is lavishly illustrated (providing) European readers with more realistic visual images of China's landscape and people than ever before (Lach-Kley, Asia in the making, III, p.484. This first embassy of the Dutch East India Company of Pieter de Goyer and Jakob de Keyser to the court of China in the years 1655-57, describes all the events during this mission, the country, people, flora & fauna, etc. It is one of the very few non-Jesuit sources of the period. It is richly illustrated with large views of all ports and places visited, starting with Batavia, and with numerous nice text-engravings illustrating in detail Chinese life in the 17th century. The illustrations, engraved after Nieuhof's relatively accurate drawings exercised a considerable influence on the European conception of China and were widely used and reproduced (Löwendahl p. 65). The Paolinxi-plate mentioned in the index is actually only present in the Latin edition. - (Lower blank margins in first part waterstained). - The first Dutch eye-witness account of China. Tiele 800; Landwehr, VOC, 539; Cat. NHSM I, p.499; Cordier, B.S., col.2344-2345; Lust 539-541; Löwendahl, Sino-Western relations, 147.

Keywords: Asia China Dutch travel Indonesia VOC China VOC Dutch East India Company VOC Far East